With recycled materials

Science lessons with model roller coasters

Sixth graders at the Simmons-Marshall Elementary School designed and built model roller coasters as a fun way to learn some principles of science and math. They also got a lesson in working as a team to accomplish their goal.

Twelve-year-old Brittany Walker was elected president of the Safari Roller Coaster team at the St. Louis magnet school. Other Safari team members filled positions of accountant, financial advisor, administrative assistant, marketing and public relations.

A total of 10 teams of sixth graders took part in the roller coaster project in a unique program involving college student interns and the St. Louis Teachers' Recycle Center.

The city school then held an open house last month to let the kids' parents and friends see their handiwork. The open house also included smaller project displays built by kindergarten, first and second grade students at the school.

Twelve-year-old Trey Barrett was the main designer of the Safari roller coaster. That's because of his drawing talent. Until this project, Trey said his artwork has been mostly "cartoon characters such as Buggy Bunny and Tasmaniac."

One of the project goals was to make a model roller coaster that actually worked. In other words, the design had to allow a "car" to start at the top and complete the whole route using only its speed and the force of gravity.

The team ran into some trouble with the design phase.

A drawing was the design's first step. But, team president Brittany said the first plan "was too complicated" and "we couldn't build it with the materials at hand."

Eleven-year-old Charlene Dixon said the team's first Safari model didn't work either. When they put a marble, which played the part of the coaster "car," on the track it didn't get to the end of the track. "It didn't have enough speed to get all the way," she said.

The redesign put the starting gate higher. That enabled the marble to build up enough speed to make its way all the way to the end.

Then, another design problem showed up. Sometimes, the marble flew off the track when it hit the curves. The kids build up the lips of the track to hold the marble on course.

But, in the end, the team completed the project. And with a minimum of argument.

Eleven-year-old Myesha Thigpen said the team voted on four different project issues and all the votes were unanimous.

Team accountant, 12-year-old Byron Poynter, said the project came in under budget. Each team was given an amount of "play" money to pay for all project materials. The goal was not to spend more money for the completed project than was in the budget.

In this case, the construction materials were "purchased" from supplies provided by the St. Louis Teachers Recycle Center (SLTRC). That group collects surplus materials from companies and schools use these recycled materials for school projects.

A mobile showroom truck, named "The Van-Go," brought the recycled materials right to the school. Thirteen-year-old LaKeisha McCurry said she was even able to find some animal posters that fit just right with the team's Safari theme.

But, the team members said they needed to make three or four shopping trips as they found that design changes meant they needed additional recycled supplies.

Most of the kids on the Safari team said they liked the designing and building of the roller coaster the best. However, Byron Poynter said he like the budgeting "because of all the big numbers we got to work with."

Another feature of the Simmons-Marshall project was that interns from the University of Missouri-St. Louis' College of Education worked with the kids on their projects. The interns were college seniors who worked at the elementary school one day a week.

That gave the education students a taste of in-school classroom work before they moved on to everyday practice teaching.

Natasha Mitchell and Shenita Luckett were college interns for sixth-grade project teams. Natasha is a senior from Hazelwood. This semester she's doing her student teaching in the same sixth grade classroom.

She said, "I've got a head start. I've already established rapport with these kids." In the project work, she focused on science and math. But, during the practice teaching, she handles a full range of subjects since the kids stay in one classroom all day.

Shenita said she wanted her student teaching assignment closer to her home in Lake Saint Louis. About half of the college interns are practice-teaching at Simmons-Marshall now.

The intern program is an effort to encourage UMSL College of Education students to take their first full-time teaching jobs with the St. Louis Public Schools after graduation.

(For information on the SLTRC recycle materials program, visit www.sltrc.com.)